Independent Newspaper of Swarthmore College Since 1881
Swarthmore Housing: Your “Home” Away From Home
For incoming first years, living on campus in a residence hall is always nerve-racking. Leaving the comforts of home to move into a cramped, messy double with a stranger can be daunting, but luckily, Swarthmore generously offers a myriad of choices for
Phoenix Poll Finds a Divided Student Body
Last Tuesday and Wednesday, polling by The Phoenix found Swarthmore students split on a range of issues both on and off campus. In the poll, 86 students at Crumb Cafe responded to a series of questions about the college administration, the upcoming
Home Away From Home: Post-Housing Selection Reflections
On Monday, April 8, Swarthmore opened pre-selection housing applications for students with accommodations, followed by the general selection process for rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors. This year’s room selection was marked by the addition — and return — of several important policies,
Give Us Consistent Floor Plans!
The other day as I walked to class, studied in Kohlberg, and ate in Narples, housing appeared to be the main topic on everyone’s mind. This was especially true, it seemed, on Wednesday, as rising juniors continued to create and discard plans
Housing Advisory Council Works to Reform Selection, Implements Blocking
As students prepare for dorm selection, a new Housing Advisory Council is working to update a system that sparked negative blowback last year as shown in a recent report by the Student Government Organization (SGO). The council, formed Spring 2024, is composed
Debunking Housing Myths: A Guide to Fall 2023 Housing Selection
On Tuesday, April 11, Swarthmore Housing informed students that the room selection process for Fall 2023 is underway. The announcement came in an email to students and outlined several steps, including roommate selection, pre-selection, and the housing lottery, as well as changes
How To Stop A Housing Crisis
We have a whole lot of extremely complicated problems on our hands these days. The COVID-19 pandemic, for example, is a hellish enigma of epidemiology, pharmacology, virology, social psychology, medical ethics, regular ethics, macroeconomics, microeconomics, supply-chain logistics, and more — and that’s
Campus Braces For Omicron Variant Surge
As cases of COVID-19 in Delaware county reach extreme highs, students travel back to campus to begin yet another atypical spring semester. President Valerie Smith announced in her Jan. 7 email that the college anticipates high COVID-19 positivity rates — unlike any
Full Occupancy: Housing Circumstances During Fall 2021
With the Fall 2021 semester underway, students are beginning to shift focus and concerns away from their housing situations to academics. As the college returns to full student occupancy on campus, however, living arrangements have proved to be another challenge for both